She narrowly escaped prison
After a council city employee leaked the address of a sex offender to a group of paedophile hunters, the angry mob threatened to kill him and burn down his house.
Hull Crown Court heard how customer services assistant Chloe Carr, 23, told paedophile hunters that the sex offender “deserves all he gets” and was “bloody awful” and “disgusting,” reports Hull Live.
Carr admitted to unlawfully disclosing private data without consent but did deny any misconduct in public office by abusing the public’s trust and leaking the information between June 4 and July 2, 2020.
Carr was working from home during the pandemic, at which point a colleague posted a request from a registered sex offender asking for a food parcel. The unnamed man was put into emergency accommodation after his address was posted on Facebook, and so he provided his new address to Hull City’s council customer service.
Carr then took the man’s address and shared it with a Hull-based paedophile vigilante group, citing that she thought it was wrong for the man to be housed near a school.
Throughout social media conversations with the group, shown in court, Carr maintained that it could not be linked back to her. “This can’t come back to me due to my work,” a screenshot reads.
“The defendant made it abundantly clear that she worked for Hull City Council and the information needed to be kept anonymous,” said prosecutor Charlotte Baines. The prosecution argued that Carr’s actions threatened to “destabilise” the offender, which could have had dire consequences.
The man received his food parcel but phoned the police after assailants tried to break down his door. He was allegedly warned to “get out now or they would kill him and burn down the property.”
The hunter group later contacted Carr to confirm that the sex offender had been moved, to which she replied: “I am so happy. He is bloody awful. Happy to have helped everyone.”
Judge Mark Bury said that the decision not to proceed with a prosecution under the more serious misconduct charge had been made after a “thorough review by a number of different people.” However, he added that it meant the highest penalty for the lesser offence was a fine rather than prison.
Carr was fined £500, to be paid at £50 a month.
It is understood that she left the courthouse giggling on her way to the pub.
“You are very lucky about that,” said Judge Bury. “The offence that you have committed is, in my view, a very serious one that would have carried a sentence of imprisonment.”
He told the court: “I would have locked her up.”
“This is not a public service at all,” said Judge Bury. “They had done their punishment. It wasn’t for you to give their details out.”
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